#region Apache License
//
// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more 
// contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
// this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. 
// The ASF licenses this file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0
// (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with 
// the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.
//
#endregion

namespace log4net.Plugin
{
  /// <summary>
  /// Interface used to create plugins.
  /// </summary>
  /// <remarks>
  /// <para>
  /// Interface used to create  a plugin.
  /// </para>
  /// </remarks>
  /// <author>Nicko Cadell</author>
  /// <author>Gert Driesen</author>
  public interface IPluginFactory
  {
    /// <summary>
    /// Creates the plugin object.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns>the new plugin instance</returns>
    /// <remarks>
    /// <para>
    /// Create and return a new plugin instance.
    /// </para>
    /// </remarks>
    IPlugin CreatePlugin();
  }
}
